Michael Warschawski, Alternative Information Center (AIC)
Under substantial American pressure, Mahmoud Abbas agreed to “direct negotiations” with Binyamin Netanyahu. The problem for the latter was never in ‘direct’ but in ‘negotiations.’ He knows, as we all do, that the Israeli government has no intention of discussing a solution that could be accepted even by a Palestinian more moderate than Abbas himself;
there is also no sign that there will be talk of freezing the settlements, a move that even the Road Map notes as an essential and initial step for conducting negotiations. Netanyahu has already announced that he will demand an initial discussion about security. The fact that the situation is quiet, there are no attacks and hardly even the throwing of rocks, the fact that the CIA reports testify how the Palestinian security services are doing their work better than ever anticipated – none of this impedes Netanyahu from recycling the mantra from a decade ago about the fight against terror.
For Netanyahu, this is not only a tired excuse to resist change in the status quo: the man who invented the “global terrorist threat” is stuck somewhere in the 1980s and is awaiting the return of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney to the White House in order to renew the global crusade against international terrorism.
And another precondition raised by the prime minister, a condition that even he knows is utterly unacceptable to the Palestinians: recognition of the state of Israel as a state of the Jewish people. The advisors of Abu Mazen know that even if out of exhaustion or confusion one of them will declare such recognition, an additional demand will immediately be made such as adding a few lines of Hatikva to the Palestinian national anthem, or exchanging Naqba day with a salute to Zionism, what to speak of adding the poems of Bialik and Naomi Shemer to the mandatory Palestinian curriculum in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and refugee camps throughout the world.
What Obama will attempt to attain through this direct summit is agreement for a round of talks, during which it will be agreed to hold a round of talks to prepare negotiations for the organization of a summit during which it will be decided to hold a round of talks…and so on. This isn’t only a blatant scam but the humiliation of Abu Mazen. Netanyahu also knows that humiliating the Palestinian president will further strengthen Hamas which will prove, it will be contended, that there is no partner as long as the majority of Palestinians support terrorists who do not recognize the state of Israel.
One expecting American pressure on the prime minister of Israel and the flexing of muscles to force Netanyahu to honour the obligations of the Israeli governments, will be bitterly disappointed. Obama learned from his failed experience, the mid-term elections are approaching and in general internal issues are what bring votes and not wading in the murky swamp of Israeli-Arab negotiations. Abu Mazen bet on Washington, and again this time he bet on the wrong horse.
Fabricating a Case against MK Zoabi: “We Must Learn from Josef Gebbels”
In the beginning of the “second Intifada”, the Chairperson of the Conseil Representatif des Intitutions Juives de France (CRIF), Roger Cukierman, bragged in the pages of Haaretz: “I told Sharon when he came to France that we must learn from Josef Gebbels, and immediately establish an office for matters of propaganda…” The suggestion was accepted and a public relations project began with an international campaign about the supposed anti-Semitism standing behind every expression of criticism against Israel’s policies of oppression and its occupation.
The Israeli army spokesperson at the time was Oded Ben Ami. When he left his position, the lies became substantially more subtle. However, this man continued his work of disinformation, this time as a “journalist” in the Channel Two news.
Last week, on his programme “Six With Oded Ben Ami,” the man decided to fabricate a case against Member of Knesset Hanin Zoabi and her presence on the Freedom Flotilla, in the tradition of Cukierman and his advisors. Even before Ben Ami opened his mouth, the channel announced “incriminating photographs” and for several long minutes Ben Ami “analysed” the pictures….which show absolutely nothing, and certainly not weapons which according to him were found on the deck of the ship.
We will listen to the television critic of Haaretz in his review the “interview” conducted by Ben Ami with MK Zoabi: “in three cases it was determined that the photographs prove that (Zoabi) is lying. This is despite that the photos themselves… are carefully edited, the fingerprints of the Israeli army spokesperson are all over them…it is almost impossible to understand anything…the first time it was argued that “new photographs show that MK Zoabi is walking amongst the armed activists on the deck of the Marmara and confronting IDF soldiers…afterwards it was clarified that this “confrontation” was actually translation work.
The second time, when they cut to a news flash, the reader repeated the same contentions and added that “later in the piece we will hear Zoabi when she is arguing with an IDF soldier and attempting to prevent him from rescuing an injured soldier. Of course, there was no soldier but an activist who asked to remain on the deck and Zoabi translated his request for the army. Now we break for commercials, and Ben Ami exploits the opportunity and continues to create reality through words: “immediately afterwards, the new clip which demonstrates that MK Zoabi saw the armed activists on the deck of the Marmara in contradiction to her testimony.”
Thus, Six with Oded Ben Ami decided to convict Zoabi three times with false testimony. The fact that during the interview itself she supplies several logical explanations and embarrasses Ben Ami several times does not change the paradigm with which Ben Ami came from the military headquarters and which he decided to use in his propaganda broadcast. Indeed, with the advice of the leader of the Jewish community in France, Channel 2 knows from whom to learn propaganda and character assassination.
Translated to English by the Alternative Information Center (AIC)
